Faithfulness in the mundane tasks assigned to us is preparation for bigger things. Not only that but David’s preparation for this battle took place when David began putting the Torah to music using his harp (which would later become the Psalms) while out in the fields keeping the sheep. No doubt, one of the lessons he saw in the Torah was the principle that the battle against Israel’s enemies had always been the Lords.

A Union officer from Rhode Island named Sullivan Ballou wrote a love- letter to his wife on the eve of the Civil War Battle of Bull Run, a battle he sensed would be his last. He speaks tenderly to her of his undying love, of “the memories of blissful moments I have spent with you.” He grieves the thought that he must give up “the hope of future years, when, God willing, we might have lived and loved together, and seen our sons grown up to honorable manhood around us.” Yet despite his love for her, the battle calls and he cannot turn away from it. “Sarah, my love for you seems to bind me with mighty cables that nothing but Omnipotence could break,” and yet a greater cause “comes over me like a strong wind and bears me irresistibly on with all these chains to the battlefield.”

Sullivan Ballou was killed in battle the next day. God has shaped our masculine hearts to respond to a mission that both involves and transcends even home and family. I believe that John Eldredge is right when he says, “A man must have a cause to which he is devoted even unto death, for this is written into the fabric of his being (Wild at Heart). The adage is true, “If a man doesn’t have a cause to die for, he doesn’t have a cause to live for.” This episode is about the greatest cause in the history of the world—the kingdom of Jesus defeating the kingdom of evil and spreading righteousness over earth.

In Genesis 2:15, God reveals that he placed Adam in the garden to protect the garden and its inhabitants from harm. The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and KEEP it. The Hebrew word for “keep” is SHAMAR which means to protect from harm. As Genesis unfolds, we discover an enemy, Satan, who hates God and his image bearer. He is described by Jesus as a thief “who comes only to steal and kill and destroy.” As C.S. Lewis said, “enemy occupied territory, that is what the world is.” In Ephesians 6 Paul explains that most of our calling to protect our family and the garden (the world) requires us to fight spiritually. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places (vs 12). This episode challenges us all to rethink whether we are standing on the sidelines or engaged in some spiritual fight against a Goliath that God wants us to fight to spread Christ’s righteous agenda. The subject of our study is David’s defeat of Goliath, which is physical picture that is loaded with truths about spiritual warfare. Let’s dig in. (1 Sam 17 summary.)

A champion named Goliath came out of the Philistine camp. His height was six cubits and a span. Goliath stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, “Why do you come out and line up for battle? Choose a man and have him come down to me. If he is able to fight and kill me, we will become your subjects; but if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our subjects and serve us.  On hearing the Philistine’s words, Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified.

Three of David’s brothers are stationed there so David is sent to them by his father with food. David arrives. As he was talking with them, Goliath, the Philistine champion from Gath, stepped out from his lines and shouted his usual defiance, and David heard it. David asks, ‘Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?’ What David said was overheard and reported to Saul, and Saul sent for him. David said to Saul, ‘Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.’ Saul replied, ‘You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a young man, and he has been a warrior from his youth.’ But David said to Saul, ‘Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.’ Saul said to David, ‘Go, and the Lord be with you.’

Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd’s bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine…who said to David, ‘Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?’ And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. ‘Come here,’ he said, ‘and I’ll give your flesh to the birds and the wild animals!’  

David said to the Philistine, ‘You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves; for the battle is the LORD’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.’ As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him. Reaching into his bag and taking out a stone, he slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell facedown on the ground. Than David cut off his head.

Goliath and What He Represents

Goliath’s armament was the best that the highly skilled Philistines could obtain either by manufacturing or by trade. The shield was a large standing shield that covered the whole body. Most of his armament was bronze except his spear’s head of iron—this was just the beginning of the Iron Age. It weighed about 15 lbs. His coat of mail weighed 125 lbs. Six cubits, and a span is about 9 feet 9 inches.

Goliath was:

• An enemy against whose strength God’s people felt powerless.
• An enemy who defied God’s people to conquer him.
• An enemy whose very presence struck fear in the heart of God’s people.
• An enemy whose daily defiance of God’s people paralyzed them for they knew their strength was no match for his.

In the battle between the Kingdom of Darkness and Christ’s Kingdom of Righteousness, Goliath represents sinful habits, desires, fears, and doubts that defy our efforts to bring them under the Lordship of Christ in both our own personal lives and in our culture. At the personal level, some years ago, after a men’s retreat that focused on the battle with porn, the weekend closed with the chance for men to share what they had gotten from the weekend. Rising to his feet, Bob spoke through his tears, “I want to confess to you brothers that I need help with my Internet porn problem. I’ve only been married two years. I thought marriage would fix the problem. But it hasn’t.” Slowly, Sam got to his feet and confessed the same struggle. Then Bill. Then Brian offered to lead a group to join together in battle with this Goliath. Your Goliath may be any idol that regularly defies your efforts to control it, not just lust, nicotine, sugar, alcohol or gambling but anger, bitterness, a sharp tongue, lack of discipline, or time-wasting pleasures.

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